Goods can be transported in many different ways using many different methods. Long-haul transportation in particular often employs containers which can be loaded with goods and thereafter moved by vehicles, trains, marine vessels, or airplanes to their desired destinations. While not always relying on detachable containers, short-haul goods transport similarly uses vehicles like delivery trucks/box trucks which have attached containers for storage of items and freight.
In the past, most loading or unloading of goods was performed without significant input from computerized systems. However, with the evolution of computing capabilities, the availability of sensed environmental data, and the ever-increasing focus on efficiency, today's loading and unloading procedures are monitored, supervised, and/or assisted by computing platforms that can act on information in an instance. One of the parameters that can be advantageously used by such computing platforms is the dimension of a container. Recognizing the dimension of a container can assist in, for example, monitoring the fullness, preventing the loading of oversized freight, preventing oversized loading equipment from being introduced into the container, more accurately planning the load and/or unload process, and so on.
Seeing as how container dimensions vary not only across different types of containers (e.g., trailers designed to be hitched and towed by semi-trucks and delivery trucks) but among the same types of containers (e.g., different sized delivery trucks, different sized trailers, and so on), there exists a need for improved, automated means of detecting and reporting dimensions of a container. Additionally, there is a need to optimize such means to perform efficiently.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.